Friends Gather Here was created out of the love of fun. For me, designing things is fun. For all of us, gathering with our friends and family is fun. The warmth and love we find in gathering together fulfills a basic need that is good for our hearts and souls. In the spring of 2020, I relaunched my small Etsy shop with the idea of helping families during the pandemic. How can we fulfill a basic human need when we’re all sheltering in place, some of us far away from the ones we love?
The idea had sprouted in my mind without me even realizing it. At the beginning of the pandemic my son and I naturally reached out to one another with 2,300 miles between us. It took exactly one week before game night was re-invented. We were getting on Zoom and setting up Settlers of Catan on each end, chatting and laughing and getting caught up over the roll of dice, eating ice cream and sharing face mask tips. It made the distance between us less painful and the surreal dread of the pandemic less scary.
And I found myself thinking, how are other families coping? Learning remotely, trying to find necessities online, rethinking their budgets to do so. Do they have enough left in their coffers to feed their hearts and souls?
So, board game downloads and digital designs were born in my shop. My hope is to empower those people who want to gather but don’t have a large budget to accommodate all the spending required to do so.
I am passionate about my friends and family and I hope what I design helps fulfill that basic human need for you and your loved ones.